I WILL NOT COMPLY: IL mag limit provisions in public in effect next Monday.

Next Monday, April 10th will mark 90 days since the governor signed the Illinois Firearms Ban Act.  Contained within is a provision that prohibits illegal magazines from being transported off your own property after 90 days following enactment.  That would be April 10th.

Yes, there are narrow few exceptions, but even then the offending mags must be unloaded and encased to transport them.  While the law explicitly says that handgun mags 15-rounds and less are okay, it all says that any magazine that’s readily convertible to hold more than 15 rounds is prohibited.

And therein lies the problem.  Pretty much every magazine with a removable baseplate is “readily convertible” to more than 15 rounds.

Here’s Todd Vandermyde to discuss this further…

So basically any handgun or rifle magazine is, under a strict interpretation of the law, prohibited.  Illegal. 

Here’s the law.

And the relevant section from page 105 of the file at the link above..

“Large capacity ammunition feeding device” means:
(1) a magazine, belt, drum, feed strip, or similar
device that has a capacity of, or that can be readily
restored or converted to accept, more than 10 rounds of
ammunition for long guns and more than 15 rounds of
ammunition for handguns;

(emphasis added).

Here’s more from page 106.

(c) Except as provided in subsections (d), (e), and (f),
and beginning 90 days after the effective date of this
amendatory Act of the 102nd General Assembly, it is unlawful
to knowingly possess a large capacity ammunition feeding
device.

So I’ve been thinking about this a lot in the last few days.

Here’s what I’ve decided.

I WILL NOT COMPLY with the magazine capacity limits.

I will continue to carry my Glock 19 with standard 15-round magazines.  And spares.  Yes, magazine extensions are readily available for Glock mags which would make them illegal.  I don’t care.  Come arrest me.

And when I travel to Chicagoland and carry a Glock 17, I’ll carry standard 17-round capacity magazines.  I will not comply with an obviously unconstitutional law.

While I’m not going to recommend to people to flout the law without an awareness of the consequences for doing so, I am also going to say that I don’t think a lot of folks are going to put their semi-autos away next Monday and start carrying revolvers.  I know I’m not.  And if you need a public example of someone who absolutely, positively isn’t going to cower in fear at the threat of arrest for possessing magazines that can be readily converted to accept more than 15 rounds, you’ve got it.

Once more, for the benefit of Kwame’s clowns:  I just want to make it clear that I’m willing to publicly proclaim that as much as I love wheel guns, I’m not benching the Glock 19 next Monday and beyond because Illinois says the standard cap mags are prohibited.